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02 April 2009

Ancestral Research and Nostalgia through Google Street View

Have you used Google Maps recently and clicked on a little yellow figure above the zoom feature? In some ways Google Street View can be seen as an invasion of privacy when anyone with access to the facility can wander virtually down your street.

Yet there are some great benefits of using Google Maps, and Google Earth. Satellite images of urban and rural landscapes where ancestors lived can be explored it a relatively easy way, as if you are flying over the area in a helicopter.

Street View can save a research trip, and hence quite a lot of money and polluting energy - and no helicopter noise, either. I recently took a virtual trip on Street View to where I used to live and work in London, and to where some of my ancestors lived in the city. I also enjoyed the nostalgia of being able to wander up Regent Street from Piccadilly Circus, in the comfort of my Australian home.

I often enjoy using Google Maps to see satellite images of places I have lived or visited, and places where my ancestors lived. There are also interesting websites of local areas (especially tourist websites), many with photographs. Another useful source of pictorial views is flickr.com.

I find that Flickr is also a good place to find better images of places I have visited than my old, out-of-focus holiday snaps! I'll mention more about this in the coming weeks in my Continual Journeys blog.